Yes, Babies Can Get Melanoma. A Survivor’s Story

"Don’t worry! Kids don’t get melanoma.” It is a common belief and yet nothing could be further from the truth. 21-year-old Marit Peterson is proof. The University of Texas Senior and future dermatologist was diagnosed with stage 3b melanoma as a tiny baby of 18 months. As she says, it was a quick lesson that life is not fair, and yet any life challenge can bring unexpected blessings. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode 

✅ The risk of melanoma in children

✅ How Marit handles the shadow of cancer recurrence

✅ The empowerment of advocacy

✅ How Marit shares melanoma awareness and education with friends

✅ The power of pivoting to new adventures in life

✅ The value of advocating for yourself as a patient

Links 

🔶 Pediatric Melanoma: https://bit.ly/419S1Wf

🔶 Born With Melanoma: Nora’s Story https://bit.ly/4trCrRI 

Claire Marie Foundation Mission

“ The Claire Marie Foundation provides clarity and hope in the fight against adolescent and young adult melanoma through awareness, education and prevention. 

Follow and Connect

🔶 www.clairemariefoundation.org

🔶Instagram

🔶Facebook

🔶 LinkTree

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, everyone. It's been a bit since we saw you last. Welcome to our second season of An Unexpected Life. Of course, our conversations are about celebrating those who have overcome bumps in the road, as you might call them, to go on and to lead a wonderful life. And of course, we have conversations involving all sorts of aspects of skin wellness and melanoma prevention. And that's what we're all about. Today I'm going to introduce you to a remarkable young woman who not only overcame melanoma with an early childhood diagnosis, but is now thriving as a student, as an advocate, and even a future physician. Don't you just love people who take charge of their life even when it's an unexpected life? For those of you just discovering us, I'm Marianne Bannister with the Claire Murray Foundation. We are a nonprofit established in 2014 following the loss of our young daughter, Claire Wagenhurst. She lost her life to melanoma at the age of 17. In Claire's case, it was induced hormonally. She went through puberty, like all kids do. In her case, that puberty prompted melanoma to develop in a mole. And it was a situation that very few in the medical profession even were aware of. And so as we went through that journey, we found our mission. Melanoma is much more prevalent in young people than you might expect. It's actually the number two cancer in adolescents and the number one cancer in young adults, even the number one cause of cancer death in young women, 25 to 30. And with that, a lot of those in the medical profession just can't wrap their brains around the fact that it strikes people who are so young and that it also presents and looks completely different in young people than it does in those individuals who are older in age. And here's an interesting fact, and something that I'm betting you didn't know. Did you know that babies can actually be born with melanoma or develop it when they're very young? It's one of those things that you don't think about until it happens to you. And our guest today knows that very, very well. I want to introduce you to Merritt Peterson, who is just such a wonderful breath of fresh air. Merritt, it's been what, like 10 years since you and I first connected when I met you and your family on Capitol Hill during a melanoma awareness event to raise funding.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

It's been 10 years. That's crazy. I've been doing this.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

You were just my line. You were this cute little 11-year-old girl then, you know. But for that, let me just fill everybody in on your background. And again, you were 18 months old when you were diagnosed with a stage three melanoma, which happily you've overcome. You're a student at the University of Texas in Austin, uh, pre-med major. You're an advocate. You're still out on Capitol Hill. You were there recently campaigning. And yay, for you, you want to be a dermatologist, you'd be perfect at it in the future. But um, I'm just so happy you're with us and taking time today because you are one of those wonderful success stories that that we like to share because Claire's story obviously is the worst case scenario. But there's so many people who go through this and it doesn't mark their life indefinitely. They're able to, you know, thrive and go on as you have. Will you start us off by kind of giving us the summation of your story?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yes. Hi, thank you so much for having me here. And I'm so happy to share my story with everyone. As mentioned, I am a 21-year-old um pediatric melanoma survivor. And um, that's kind of been kind of the whole theme of my life. I have um been an advocate for melanoma research for a decade now, which is crazy because I'm only 21. So that's literally half my life. That I've kind of taken um a role of communication through prevention and education. Um, and yes, I'm just finishing up my last semester at the University of Texas. Um, I graduate in less than two months, which is just so scary. And then I'll be applying to medical school in May, um, hoping to stay in Texas where I grew up. Um, but I'm just so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

The fact that your success and your positive energy is just so contagious. And you have been what those in the medical community and and and in cancer world know, NED, which is no evidence of disease, for some time. How long has it been since you've actively had to treat melanoma?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

After my um my initial surgeries to remove my tumor and my um my lymph nodes in my right armpit, um, they declared me no evidence of disease at that point. And then I went through a year-long treatment for remission. Um, and that was an alpha interferon treatment. And um since then I've had no evidence of disease. So I've had no um no skin cancers. I have had multiple things removed. Just, I mean, I feel like everyone does lots of things could be precancerous, but they don't consider those um evidence of disease. Um, but luckily I just go to the doctor all the time.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

So And again, I have to emphasize it's the dermatologist that you need to see for your skin. Have you run into this where so many people? I get called from parents, obviously, specifically, who are really upset because they've gone to their pediatrician and with their child and said, you know, take a look at this thing on their arm. I don't like it. And the pediatrician says, Oh, it's a spitznava, it's something else, when in fact it's a melanoma. And and I always say it's like you need to have the specialist for this purpose to see. I mean, you wouldn't go uh to your dentist for a head cold, right? Like you need, right? So just getting a screening out. Do you get screened obviously once a year, but do you do it more often with a dermatologist or how what's your routine at this point?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah, so I still go to MD Anderson every single August for my dermatology appointment there because they just like to see me and she has every single spot on my body memorized. She'll walk into the room and be like, that's new. I'm like, yes, it's a new freckle. I don't can't even believe that you noticed that. It's insane. Um, so that's kind of like my main appointment during the year. Um, but I am kind of a freak and I look in the mirror very frequently. Um, so I like had a new freckle and I actually work as a medical assistant at a dermatology office in Austin. So I can just go in and ask my boss to look at my skin if anything is suspicious. Um, actually, she took something off and did a biopsy on it because I was so concerned and she was like, knowing your history, let's just take it off. I I'll cover it for you. And like, let's just make sure that you're at peace of mind. And it ended up being nothing. But that's kind of been my routine um the past few years is just asking the people close to me who are in the medical field um to look at my spots. Um, but I have so many dermatologists all over that I can get into honestly that afternoon if I need to just give it a history.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

But going back to your childhood, so obviously we are so conditioned that the sun is the problem, the sun is the problem, which in the majority of melanoma cases or other skin cancers, yes, the sun's the problem. But that's one thing that we've advocated for with our foundation is like in Claire's case, it was hormonally induced. Women can develop it when they're pregnant. There's a genetic component. Obviously, you were 18 months old, you hadn't been exposed to the sun to the levels. So have you ever learned was it a genetic component that that started this?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Um, yeah, so we thought it was genetic when I was diagnosed because my mother's father, so my maternal grandfather, had melanoma that presented very, very similar to my um to my melanoma. It was light pink. It was on his arm, and mine was on the same right arm, but on my hand. Um, and so we were like, well, I mean, clearly I had not been suntanning outside. I was not even two years old. Um, so it clearly was not caused by the sun. Um, so our kind of first to make ourselves feel better, our answer was, oh, it's genetic. Like that's just it has to be, because why would it not? Um, but after I was um declared no evidence of disease, my family wanted to give back to the hospital. And so they asked my doctor what they could do. And he said, we have 2,000 melanoma genes waiting in a lab to be tested. We need half a million dollars. And so they were like, okay. So then they started our golf tournament and um ended up raising, I think, close to$3 million, which it the the event, the event fell off in COVID, as most things did. Um, but all that money was able to fund the research for those melanoma genes. And so they found all these new genes that are melanoma-causing, but every single one that they found, I don't have. So at this point, I I have no answers to um the genetic aspect. So we just believe that it's not genetic at this point. It totally could be. And as they progress in the research and everything, I'll continue to get tested every single year. Um, but as of right now, I'm just kind of a fluke, just kind of born with it, and it happens.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

That happened, you know, that that's like with Claire's. Like the situation was hers was can connected to hypothyroid, which a lot of young people develop at in puberty, um, without without a problem. Except she had a mole that had a receptor to TSH hormone, which is what you have too much of with hypothyroid. Again, this was discovered by researchers at MD Anderson, your neck of the woods. And so basically it was like this perfect little storm where the receptors in the mole kind of ate up the extra TSH, and that created melanocytes and the melanoma developed from there. So it was just like, yeah, that's not going to happen to everybody. But but you have the same kind of advocacy that, okay, you may be an anomaly, you may be the unusual case, but at the same time, if parents have a young child and they see something unusual on their skin, don't assume that it's nothing. Like listen to that gut, right? And if it's a, I mean, I'm sure you're forever. Do you feel like there's a shadow that you have to kind of deal with in your life because once you've had it, it could come back? Is that something you're very aware of?

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yes, unfortunately, that's a real reality for me. Um, there are some mornings when I wake up and I'm like, what if I have cancer again? Because it can't always come back. And that is so scary, but I've learned that that's just part of my life, and life isn't fair. Um, and I can't let that cripple me in any sort of way. And so I've kind of turned those anxieties into um my future and my future, hopefully, as a dermatologist, I can use those those shadows of my past to motivate me and want to help others. Um, so yes, I do have anxiety, and that's a totally real thing to have. And I think most cancer patients deal with anxiety. Um but it's so great that we can talk about it now, and there's so many resources for me if I'm dealing with anxiety about um about my disease that I can go and get help. Um, but yeah, it's it's a totally real thing, and I do deal with that a lot. Not every single day, but some days.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Definitely well, I mean, and that's just it. It you can choose to um let it keep you from living your life and going forward, um, or you can choose to engage it and be empowered by it, as you clearly have, and uh move forward in a positive way. You know, I I find it interesting, it's like that you've gone into the medical profession because so well, okay, Claire was one of those. A couple people came up and said when she would be in the hospital, like, you know, so do you want to be a doctor? She goes, Oh god, no, this is the last place I'd want to be, right? Yeah, I mean, you either got that or you don't. But there was something about it that intrigued you. And yet you probably don't have a memory as a little bitty kid of going through the treatments, do you?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

No, honestly, I can't remember anything, which is that's a blessing. I think that's a huge blessing. Yes. I mean, that was definitely a traumatic experience. And I look at pictures and I'm like, oh my God, I looked so sick. You're so tiny. I was so tiny, I was so sick. Like, that must have been so hard for my whole family. Going back every single year, there's these feelings that kind of arise the week leading up to it. And but it's like a subconscious type thing that's like, wow, like I remember this fish tank looks so familiar, but I don't remember when I was there the first time to see it, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yes, it does. It's flashback to your deep memory.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

That's just it's like a I don't know if it's like a PTSD. I've never been diagnosed with that, but um, it it's some sort of they need to find a name for that. They need to come up with that kind of they absolutely do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

I mean, okay, that's your research project right there, Mary. Focus on that. Um, and I'm sure, you know, your mother and your dad, you know, as you said, it's upsetting. And I know you have a brother, you have others? I have your brother, yes. Okay. So has that the shadow, if we will, it affects the whole family, I'm sure. Did you find them being overly protective of you going through your life? Or did you have to fight a little bit to get them to ease off? You know, that's a big issue as a parent. It elevates the worry for your child, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yes. Well, I mean, with the sunscreen, it was oh crazy time.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Yeah, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Crazy. Like I was the bucket hat kid growing up at recess. I was covered in sunscreen head to toe. I mean, we tried every single brand. That's obviously, I feel like that that's that's an obvious thing having a child that had melanoma. They still are very protective of me, but it's not because of the melanoma, it's because I'm just a very clumsy person. So they they've joked that they've wanted to wrap me in bubble wrap um to walk outside of the house because I can't ride a bike because I'm scared I'm gonna fall and hurt myself. I've fallen down flights of stairs, I've fallen out of golf carts, gotten concussions. So they're worried about that aspect of me, not as much the melanoma anymore. So I think that's kind of funny.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

I assume Grace is not your middle name then. That's uh no. Okay, so you're in college, you're in a sorority. I have found um in the in the college students that we work with through our ambassador program and stuff, there's always like this shock and surprise um in the younger population that like when someone shares with them the situation. Did you get a lot of pushback and like, wait, what are you saying when you share with them your story or when you're wearing the bucket hat when you go out and the extra sunscreen? Do you find yourself being that person? That's kind of a point of of surprise. Um, but also, secondly, do you find yourself kind of over educating your friend group?

SPEAKER_00 16:24

For your latter question, yes, definitely. My friends are sick and tired of me talking about wearing a sunscreen and everything. Actually, today someone sent this funny reel on our Instagram group. Um, and she was like, something about getting sunburned in in Ka bo, because we're about to go to Cabo for spring break. And I said, No sunburns. I don't want to hear it. We are not doing that this trip. I will make sure everyone is wearing their sunscreen. But they people meet me and they think my friends joke that the first thing I tell them is that I had cancer.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Just put it out right in, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

You have to just like if you're not gonna make a joke about it, someone else will. So you might as well beat them to it. Um, I was the cancer kid, it's kind of my personality, and it's taken me a lot of places and you know, helped me choose my future career, which was great. But um, my sorority going in, um, it was definitely a very interesting talking point going through recruitment. Um, every single sorority has their own philanthropy, their national philanthropy that they choose to work with. And um, my sorority, Zeta Tal Alpha, our philanthropy is breast cancer, breast cancer education and awareness. And so I was like, hey, cancer, cancer. So I I just brought it up naturally and it kind of stuck with um the chapter. And I ended up taking over roles of um of recruitment for the next two years for the philanthropy day. Um, we actually, it was really cool. My mom came up with this idea um of having this book and we wrote inspirational messages to the um to current breast cancer fighters. Yes, and we deliver them to um the chemotherapy and units and all that sort of thing. Um so having going into college with cancer with a cancer history um can be not just a bad thing. It can open open people's eyes and perspectives. Um, and I think it's really important to educate people if you can and you are you know the facts and you know the statistics. Um, because I don't want to see any of my friends dealing with the same thing that I did. I mean, I was a baby, I don't remember, but I know it was traumatic. So I kind of just do whatever I can to tell them to wear their sunscreen and protect themselves.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

What about the tanning issue? On campuses, there's still tanning booths on campus. There are a lot of people that think, oh, I have to get the base tan and I'll go to a tanning, which to me is like, what how crazy is that? Do you find yourself caught in that conversation? Have you lost friends over this issue?

SPEAKER_00 19:14

I guess. Funny you say that. Um, freshman year, one of my best friends, I learned it's like she's so tan all the time. And to me, I just I never was exposed to people using tanning beds because my high school friends would not have dared to use a tanning bed around me because I got to them early. Yeah. This girl, I mean, I met her, we're 18, 19, she can make her own decisions. So I learned that she was using the tanning beds. And I'm like, you literally have sunspots, like white spots on your skin, and you're 19 years old. Like that is so scary. And I had to find a way to bring up that it's not healthy without just completely judging her lifestyle choices. And I didn't want to lose a friendship over it. Um, but eventually it got to the point where I was having severe anxiety about not being able to control what she did because I felt like I could kind of control my high school friends in that way. Right. And it turned me into this monster. And my mom was like, you need to do something about this. So I ended up having to get on anxiety medication, and that completely calms me down. But she knows I'm not okay with it. She still uses the tandy bed sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Well, because it's addictive. That's what they don't understand. That that as you know, and I I know you know this, but just to our listeners, like the whole thing with a tan the why you see that result so fast is because it goes so deep into the epidermis, and boom, it pulls up the color, and that's where the damage is. It increases your risk 75% if you go one time. So, this friend of yours, and that's just it, it's like you're seeing people you know and love. It's almost like they're driving towards a brick wall and you're going, stop, please stop, please stop. This is bad. And they're like, No, I'm fine, I'm good, right? And I I can just understand your anxiety with that. But but you're gonna encounter that throughout your life. And so that that is hard. I think that's one of the harder aspects of someone who's overcome a cancer in any sort of problem in their life. And I mean, for those of us that are advocates, we're advocates because we care, right? And we've experienced it ourselves, and we are really, really trying to keep other people from having the heartache and the problems that we have had. And so you get very militant about it, you know. I I'm that person too. Don't feel bad. So

SPEAKER_00 22:00

It's hard. It's hard. I like to joke with her. I'm like, when I own my own practice one day and you want to come and get like, I mean, a lot of dermatologists do aesthetic treatments now. I'm like, if you want to come and get Botox, you don't get friends and family discount because anyone who's used a tanning bed, they don't get the discount. That's what I told them.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Good call. Do you think that's one reason why, particularly in dermatology, you're you're leaning professionally, is because you can do something about these people or heading towards a brick wall that you can help treat it or diagnose it early?

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Yes, totally. And then hopefully like just spreading awareness and educating them on the whole issue. And then they can hopefully go and tell their friends, their family, protect their children. This might sound kind of interesting, but one reason I want to go into dermatology is because I have been a very confident person my entire life, and not everyone can say that. And I think if I help people feel good on the outside, then they might be able to feel that confidence on the inside one day. And I want to help them with that too.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

I absolutely, absolutely relate to that. One reason that Claire wanted to go into design into interiors is because she had the perspective that if you feel good about your environment and colors can do that and textures, and if you feel good that way, it makes you feel good overall, right? And I think that comes from if you've had that own personal experience, you understand the value of it. It's aesthetics in either way. And wonderfully in dermatology, aesthetics and medicine go hand in hand, you know. So you're healing the skin and the person inside. And I think that's lovely. You you were saying that going through this, it's opened doors and opportunities for you. Do you think there's one shiny gift that this diagnosis has given you?

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Um, I think I haven't thought about like just one thing. It's made me a student of public policy, which I don't think a lot of young adults understand how how policies and governments work. And I've been blessed with the opportunity to go to Capitol Hill. I think this was my sixth time there, and just learn how things work. Like you hear about lobbyists, and you're like, and all these people say that lobbyists are bad, which not every single lobbyist is good at, like they are there for their reason, and I'm there for my reason. I'm a patient advocate. Um, but I think it's it's at least giving me an interesting like application for medical school because I have that kind of bridged discipline of being a patient and then being a patient advocate and knowing how systems work. Um, so I guess that could be my one thing that this has given me.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

That's a wonderful perspective to have on it. And I just I want to say thank you for taking time today to share this insight because I think it's one reason we want to do this podcast is because we all have bumps in the road and it doesn't have to be melanoma, right? We all have challenges and you don't always see them coming. But the question is not, you know, what's happened to you, but how you choose to go forward in these circumstances. And I, you know, I'm so proud of you. You know, I think of that, you know, little lanky 11-year-old, and here you are, ready to take on the world. And congratulations on your pending graduation. Um, and uh good luck with the med school apps. I'm sure that you might get multitude of acceptances and get to choose where you want to be. Fingers crossed. Wait, knock on wood. I don't want to jinx anything either for you, you know. But you know, honestly, Marit, thank you because I just think, you know, again, it's proof that um gratitude and positive energy in life can really take take any any unexpected problem and turn it forward in a wonderful way. So thank you again today for for sharing with us your experiences.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

I love it. Thanks so much. And again, we're gonna remind everybody uh that you know, as we wrap this up here today, that you have to wear your SPF every day, as Meredith has reminded us, 30 at least, and use liquid, not spray, because as I say, it just blows off your body. You got to rub it in, right? UPF 50 clothing, if you're in the sun a lot, get those sunglasses out. And of course, at least an annual skin screening by a dermatologist who will use a scope and look at you head to toe and keep track of it. And uh, that's the most important thing because remember, even if they come back and say, oh, it's atypical, you've nailed it ahead of time. That's a good thing because there's a change going on there that you needed to get to. Um, just a quick word of thanks today, as we, as always, we're so appreciative to Castle Biosciences and Children's Cancer Foundation for making this podcast possible and supporting our mission at large. And again, we just want to say thank you so much for joining us. You can get more information about our organization and also just about melanoma and young people in general by going to our website, ClaireMarieFoundation.org. In the meantime, go out, have a wonderful day, and live life like Claire.